#codenewbies

I've been a long-time listener to the Ruby Rogues Podcast, but had taken a bit of a hiatus as I was working on some other things and my focus has not been on ruby, or coding at all.  In the time since the ending of development for uGrade.me, which coincided with the beginning of my hiatus, I've been working in networking and security as that is the direction that my career has taken me.  I am thrilled with this direction, but it does not fill the joy for me that is brought from bringing an idea to fruition through your own mental fortitude, keyboard strokes and tears.

I have an idea that I'm working through in paper and in my head and have started listening again, only to hear that long-time rogue James Edward Gray had left (stay thirsty, my friend), but beyond that, there was a new rogue to the mix, Saron Yitbarek.

To make a long story short, I am refreshed by the perspectives that Saron brings to the Rogues and have even started listening to a separate podcast that Saron does, the CODENEWBIE Podcast.  This is, in my opinion, more than just a podcast, but it is also the forming of a community around the podcast and even more so, the experience of being new to coding.

There are five links to the CodeNewbie website, and below I give a brief look at all of them is just to give you an idea of what they are all about.  With that said, it goes without saying that they are all about sharing the experience of those who are starting out coding, and encouragement for the trials that are going to come.

Blog

The blog is one way in which the members of this community work together.  This is not only Saron, sharing what she knows about coding and the experiences that she has, but rather it's a place where newbies, not newbies and other members of the community can submit and share their experiences.

Podcast

Quite obviously, this is the home of the podcast.  The podcast explores the stories of developers who are new to coding, as well as developers who were once new to coding and made it through.  It has been a great listen thus far through the first six podcasts.  I am a fan of the fresh take on the experience and will continue to listen.

Chat

On Wednesday nights, at 9PM EST, there is a CodeNewbie Twitter chat which anyone can take part in by including #CodeNewbies.  I have regrettably only been able to attend one of these thus far, due to conflicting schedules with my second job, but I think that if you're looking to be active in a very supportive group, you could certainly do far worse.  :)  But really, check it out.

Learn

Probably the least social, but extremely useful part of the site is the learn.  There are many links to different resources, groups, schools, books, schools and probably more that can be very useful to a CodeNewbie who doesn't know where to start.

Discourse

I thought of trying to describe the discourse page, but we all know what Discourse is.  If you don't, check it out.  The first post that I found sums it up.

To conclude...

Saron and the CodeNewbie community seem to be aiming to take away any stigma that possibly exists for being a Code Newbie, including the oft mentioned imposter syndrome.  I think that what she is doing is important for the community that she is creating, as well as the coding community as a whole. If I, as a fellow codenewbie had to give any one piece of advice, it would be this:

"Coding is sometimes difficult.  There are always new challenges.  Struggles are guaranteed.  However, there are also victories; so celebrate them because they make all the difference in the world."